Single mode optical fiber with improved bend performance

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus relate to optical fibers suitable for use in sensing applications exposed to radiation environments. The fibers include a core of pure silica or chlorine doped silica surrounded by a fluorinated silica cladding. These glasses for the core and cladding utilize dopants that resist radiation-induced attenuation. A two step process for forming the cladding can achieve necessary concentrations of the fluorine by performing a soot deposition process in a different environment from a consolidation process where the soot is sintered into a glass. Concentration of fluorine doped into the cladding layer enables obtaining a numerical aperture that confines a mono-mode of the fiber to resist bend-induced attenuation. Dimensions of the fiber further facilitate bending ability of the fiber.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/744,327, filed May 4, 2007 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,805,039, which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

GOVERNMENT RIGHTS IN THIS INVENTION

This invention was made with U.S. government support via the Navy undercontract number N00173-04C-6024. The U.S. government has certain rightsin this invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the invention generally relate to optical fibers that aresuitable for use in sensing applications exposed to radiationenvironments.

2. Description of the Related Art

Interferometer and grating based optical sensors rely on lighttransmission through single mode optical fibers. A fiber optic gyroscope(FOG) exemplifies one type of sensor in which light is guided through asensing coil of fiber and then detected to determine angular rotation ofthe FOG based on modulation of the light detected. However, packagingand deployment of optical sensors frequently subjects the fiber tobending that can detrimentally affect both optical and mechanicalproperties of the fiber. Furthermore, the fibers may include glassindex-modifying dopants such as germanium and phosphorus that sensitizethe glass leading to high attenuation or even total darkening whenoperating in harsh environments that expose the fiber to nuclearradiation and hydrogen. Sensing applications in such harsh environmentsutilizing any prior available fiber suffer from one or both of theseproblems associated with the fiber.

Therefore there exists a need for optical fibers with improvedperformance characteristics, such as resistance to bend-inducedattenuation and radiation-induced attenuation, and methods ofmanufacturing these optical fibers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to some embodiments, an optical waveguide includes a coreformed of one of silica without dopants and silica doped with chlorine,and a cladding surrounding the core and formed of silica doped withfluorine such that one or more of fluorine and chlorine are the onlydopants present in the core and the cladding, wherein the cladding has afirst refractive index depressed at least 0.008 relative to a secondrefractive index of the core.

For some embodiments, a method of forming an optical waveguide includesdepositing at a first temperature a silica soot layer inside a substratetube using a gas flow of a silicon containing halide and oxygen,consolidating the soot layer at a second temperature higher than thefirst temperature, wherein the consolidating occurs in an environment ofa substantially pure fluorine precursor gas to produce a fluorine dopedcladding glass, and depositing a silica layer onto the cladding glass toprovide a core glass.

In some embodiments, an optical waveguide includes a core formed byglass made of one of pure silica and silica doped only with chlorine, aninner cladding layer surrounding the core and formed by glass made ofsilica doped only with fluorine, wherein the inner cladding layer has afirst refractive index depressed at least 0.008 relative to a secondrefractive index of the core, and an outer cladding layer formed byglass made of one of pure silica and silica doped only with fluorine,wherein dimensions of the core and the cladding layers define a modefield diameter for single mode propagation through the waveguide thathas an outermost glass diameter of 78 to 82 microns.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the presentinvention can be understood in detail, a more particular description ofthe invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference toembodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Itis to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate onlytypical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to beconsidered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to otherequally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a cross section of an optical fiber in accordance withembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a refractive index profile across a preform for the opticalfiber shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method of manufacturing opticalfiber in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a graph of radiation-induced attenuation in five exemplaryoptical fibers made in accordance with embodiments of the invention ascompared to a commercially available pure silica core telecommunicationfiber.

FIG. 5 is a refractive index profile across another optical fiberpreform in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention relate to optical fibers suitable for usein sensing applications exposed to radiation environments. The fibersinclude a core of pure silica or chlorine doped silica surrounded by afluorinated silica cladding. These glasses for the core and claddingutilize dopants that resist radiation-induced attenuation. A two stepprocess for forming the cladding can achieve necessary concentrations ofthe fluorine by performing a soot deposition process in a differentenvironment from a consolidation process where the soot is sintered intoa glass. Concentration of fluorine doped into the cladding layer enablesobtaining a numerical aperture that confines a mono-mode of the fiber toresist bend-induced attenuation. Dimensions of the fiber furtherfacilitate bending ability of the fiber.

FIG. 1 shows a cross section of an optical fiber 100 with a core 102 forguiding light propagating through the fiber 100, a cladding layer 104surrounding the core 102, and an outer substrate layer 106. An outerdiameter (d₁) of the outer substrate layer 106 may be less than 120microns, less than 100 microns, or about 78 to about 82 microns. Theouter substrate layer 106 defines outermost glass of the fiber 100 andmay be in direct contact with a coating (not shown) such as a polymer.Relative to telecommunication fibers that typically have an outer glassdiameter of 125 microns, the fiber 100 enables bending around diametersthat are smaller since stress in the fiber 100 from tension/compressioncaused by the bending increases with larger diameters.

To further improve bending ability of the fiber 100, dimensions andoptical characteristics of the core 102 and the cladding layer 104 maymake the fiber 100 single mode with the mode confined to resistbend-induced attenuation. For example, a mode field diameter of thefiber 100 may be about 7.8 microns at an operating wavelength nominallyat 1550 nm. A refractive index difference, in some embodiments, of atleast 0.008 or at least 0.009 between the core 102 and the claddinglayer 104 creates a numerical aperture of about 0.18 that facilitates inconfining the mode propagating along the fiber 100. As a comparison,conventional telecommunication fibers have a larger mode field diameterof 11.5 microns and a lower numerical aperture of 0.11.

The fiber 100 lacks constituents such as germanium and phosphorus in thecore 102 and the cladding layer 104 that can lead to several lightabsorbing defects when exposed to radiation and hydrogen. For someembodiments, pure silica (SiO₂) or chlorine doped silica forms the core102. Fluorine (F) doped silica makes up the cladding layer 104 to lowerthe refractive index of the cladding layer 104 relative to therefractive index of pure silica or chlorine doped silica of the core102. This amount of refractive index depression corresponds to quantityof fluorine dopant incorporated into the cladding layer 104. Embodimentsof the invention thus improve fluorine incorporation levels in thecladding layer 104 to achieve the aforementioned mode parameters andnumerical apertures that aid in confining the mode.

FIG. 2 illustrates a refractive index profile across a preform(Example 1) from which the optical fiber 100 is drawn. A central peak202 corresponds to what becomes the core 102 and represents therefractive index of pure silica at about −0.0005. A trough 204 boundsthe central peak 202. The trough 204 at about −0.009 characterizes therefractive index of fluorine doped silica that develops into thecladding layer 104. An edge plateau 206 represents the refractive indexat around 0.0 of a substrate tube made of pure silica that forms thesubstrate layer 106 of the fiber 100.

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart illustrating a method of manufacturing theoptical fiber 100 by an improved modified chemical vapor deposition(MCVD) technique. It will be appreciated that conventional MCVD asdiscussed herein is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,027 toMacChesney, et al, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in itsentirety. As will be discussed herein below in more detail, conventionalMCVD is insufficient to produce the embodiments of the invention. Atsoot deposition step 300, gasses including a metal-halide in excessoxygen (O₂) and other atmospheric gases such as helium (He) mix inside arotating substrate tube, which is formed of silica that is optionallyfluorinated. During the soot deposition step 300, heating the substratetube at a first temperature causes a silica soot to form on the insidesurface of the substrate tube due to reaction of the gasses. A heat zoneor burner traversing the substrate tube maintains the first temperaturesufficient to allow oxidation of the metal-halide but below a thresholdheat required for fusing or sintering of the silica soot.

Next, a consolidation step 302 separate and independent of the sootdeposition step 300 fuses the silica soot layer into glass under purefluorine precursor gas. The consolidation step 302 occurs in thepresence of the fluorine precursor gas and at a second temperature,which is higher than the first temperature and sufficient to consolidatethe silica soot. Unlike single step MCVD processing where sootdeposition and consolidation along with any doping is performed underone gas-mixture flow, the consolidation step 302 occurs without thefluorine precursor gas being diluted by and in competition with othergasses in a reaction stream such as the oxygen and metal-halide requiredfor the deposition step 300 but whose flow is shut off prior to theconsolidation step 302. The consolidation step 302 occurring in only thefluorine precursor gas improves efficiency of fluorine doping andthereby increases amount of fluorine incorporated into the claddinglayer relative to fluorine doping introduced as part of the gas mixturein the single step MCVD. Further, intermediary thermal and/oratmospheric conditioning between the soot deposition step 300 and theconsolidation step 302 enables adjusting atmospheric oxidation/reductionreaction conditions during consolidation to reduce or eliminate certainglass defects.

At core deposition step 304, conventional MCVD processes or MCVDtechniques as described herein deposit an inner layer of pure silica onthe glass formed in the consolidation step 302. For some embodiments,the inner layer may include chlorine (Cl) doping to raise the refractiveindex of the core and improve resistance to attenuation in hydrogen andradiation environments. Chlorine doping of the core may utilizecorresponding deposition and consolidation steps as used with thecladding to enhance incorporation of the chlorine.

Collapsing step 306 involves, once deposition of the cladding and coreis complete, collapsing the substrate tube to provide a preform with aconsolidated structure. Drawing the preform in final fabrication step308 produces a fiber drawn to have a diameter such as set forth herein.The final fabrication step 308 may include coating the fiber with aplastic having a diameter of about 128 microns to about 132 microns.

The Example 1 preform was prepared by the method depicted in FIG. 3according to process settings for gas flows and temperatures as setforth in Table 1 below to produce the cladding layer. The substrate inwhich the cladding layer was deposited was a pure silica tube. Afterproducing the cladding layer, the core of pure silica was deposited in asingle step conventional MCVD deposition.

TABLE 1 Soot Deposition Consolidation Step (300) Step (302) SiCl₄ flow(sccm) 400 — SiF₄ flow (sccm) —  500 O₂ flow (sccm) 600 — He flow (sccm)250 — Temperature (° C.) 1590 1900

FIG. 4 illustrates a graph of radiation-induced attenuation in fiveexemplary optical fibers made with core and cladding compositions inaccordance with embodiments of the invention as compared to acommercially available pure silica core telecommunication fiber. Curves401 representing these five fibers show growth in induced attenuationfrom gamma exposure (a.u. CO₆₀) similar if not better in response whenirradiated than the pure silica core telecommunication fiber representedby reference line 402. Conventional germanium doped sensor andtelecommunication fibers exhibit radiation induced attenuation orders ofmagnitude greater under similar irradiation, and exhibit permanent andtransient hydrogen induced attenuation as a function of hydrogen partialpressure and temperature.

FIG. 5 shows a refractive index profile across another optical fiberpreform (Example 2). The Example 2 preform was prepared by the methoddepicted in FIG. 3 according to process settings for gas flows andtemperatures as set forth in Table 1 above and Table 2 below to producethe cladding and core, respectively. The substrate in which the claddinglayer was deposited was commercially available fluorinated substratetubing having material properties of 0.2 parts per million hydroxide(OH), less than 50 ppm chlorine, and about 3500 ppm fluorine.

TABLE 2 Core Soot Deposition Core Consolidation Step Step SiCl₄ flow(sccm) 400  500 O₂ flow (sccm) 600 — He flow (sccm) 250 — Temperature (°C.) 1590 1900

Raising the refractive index of the core improves intrinsic attenuationand bend performance. Referring to the refractive index profile shown inFIG. 2 for the preform of Example 1, fluorine in the cladding layer 104diffusing into the core 102 during the thermal collapse stage in preformprocessing causes the central peak 202 to be slightly depressed and lessthan that of the edge plateau 206 associated with the outer substratelayer 106. With the core 102 slightly depressed relative to the outersubstrate layer 106, the fiber tends to be more prone to tunnelingwaveguide losses under micro- and macro-bending. In some embodiments,chlorine doping of the silica core can bring the index to match that ofthe outer silica layer, and furthermore, use of fluorinated substratetubing can yield an improved waveguide design illustrated by the Example2. As shown in FIG. 5, the chlorine doped core refractive index 502being raised above that of the outer layer refractive index 506 leads toimproved attenuation and bend loss since any light leaked out of thecore tends to be reflected back into the core rather than being grabbedby the substrate layer. Further, the cladding layer refractive index 504remains depressed relative to the core and also the substrate layer thathas less fluorine doping than the cladding layer.

Various aspects of the preforms or fibers described herein modify one ormore of the core, the cladding layer or the substrate layer to achievedesired sensor suitable optical fibers. The examples illustrate somecombinations of these modifications which may be interchanged oromitted, for some embodiments, to create additional configurations ofcores, claddings and substrates such as described herein. In someembodiments, fibers may contain additional layers other than the core,cladding and substrate, such as two distinct cladding layers between thecore and the substrate. In addition, some embodiments utilize outsidevapor deposition (OVD) processes analogous to the MCVD technique toachieve fibers with similar results. While the foregoing is directed toembodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments ofthe invention may be devised without departing from the basic scopethereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. An optical waveguide, comprising: a core formedof one of silica without dopants and silica doped with chlorine; acladding surrounding the core and formed of silica doped with fluorinesuch that one or more of fluorine and chlorine are the only dopantspresent in the core and the cladding, wherein the cladding comprises atleast two distinct cladding layers and wherein at least one of thecladding layers has a first refractive index at least 0.008 relativelylower than a second refractive index of the core; and an outer layersurrounding the cladding, wherein the outer layer has an outer diameterless than 100 microns.
 2. The optical waveguide of claim 1, wherein theouter layer comprises a silica layer surrounding the cladding anddefining outermost glass of the waveguide.
 3. The optical waveguide ofclaim 2, wherein the silica layer has an outer diameter of 78 to 82microns.
 4. The optical waveguide of claim 2, wherein the silica layercomprises fluorine dopants at a concentration less than that of thecladding.
 5. The optical waveguide of claim 2, wherein the silica layercomprises fluorine dopants and has a third refractive index between thefirst and second refractive indices.
 6. The optical waveguide of claim4, wherein the core is formed of silica that is doped only withchlorine.
 7. The optical waveguide of claim 1, wherein the core and thecladding define a mode field diameter of about 7.8 microns.
 8. Theoptical waveguide of claim 1, wherein the core is formed of silica dopedonly with chlorine.
 9. The optical waveguide of claim 1, wherein thefirst refractive index of the at least one of the cladding layers is atleast 0.009 relatively lower than the second refractive index of thecore.
 10. An optical waveguide, comprising: a core formed by glass madeof one of pure silica and silica doped only with chlorine; a first innercladding layer surrounding the core and formed by glass made of silicadoped only with fluorine; a second inner cladding layer surrounding thefirst inner cladding layer, wherein at least one of the first or secondinner cladding layer has a first refractive index at least 0.008 lowerrelative to a second refractive index of the core; and an outer claddinglayer surrounding the second inner cladding layer and formed by glassmade of one of pure silica and silica doped only with fluorine, whereindimensions of the core and the cladding layers define a mode fielddiameter for single mode propagation through the waveguide that has anoutermost glass diameter of 78 to 82 microns.
 11. The optical waveguideof claim 10, wherein the core and the cladding define the mode fielddiameter of about 7.8 microns.
 12. The optical waveguide of claim 10,wherein a concentration of fluorine doped into the cladding layersenables obtaining a numerical aperture that confines the single modepropagation through the optical waveguide to resist bend-inducedattenuation.
 13. The optical waveguide of claim 10, wherein theoutermost glass diameter of 78 to 82 microns enables bending of theoptical waveguide around smaller diameters than those achieved byoptical fibers having an outer diameter of 125 microns.
 14. The opticalwaveguide of claim 1, wherein a concentration of fluorine doped into thecladding enables obtaining a numerical aperture that confines amono-mode of the optical waveguide to resist bend-induced attenuation.15. The optical waveguide of claim 1, wherein the outer diameter of theouter layer is in a range from 78 to 82 microns.
 16. The opticalwaveguide of claim 1, wherein the outer diameter of less than 100microns enables bending of the optical waveguide around smallerdiameters than those achieved by optical fibers having an outer diameterof 125 microns.